Scribe's Contest XIV entry: The Taurus Crown

 So, I`m not a novelist or anything, but I decided to enter the Scribe's Contest XIV: The Bold and the Bastardly on Chaos Dwarfs Online this time round.

The goal is to write a short story, 30 to 500 words, about a character of your collection, and with the Taurus Crown Mordheim like event planned at the Tin Soldiers of Antwerp, more on that in a future post if it actually takes place, I decided to write a piece of lore of my expedition to that multi-player skirmish game.

I have no idea on how I will fare in the contest, as this will be my very first entry ever, BUT if for some reason I would end up in the prizes, I hope I`d be second and grab 2 of the Bastards line figures from CDO (as I already have the Horns of Hashut).  

And I`ll take the opportunity in this story to bring in the first hints of the next Levies unit I`m planning on building for my Infernal Dwarf force...

But without further ado, here is my entry, one of the 17 send in:

The Taurus Crown

The skies burned, industrial smoke blotting out the sun and putting the lands around the fortress of Tenghza in a perpetual red light.  On the balcony of the black tower, Aldades Vongalazthag gazed upon the soldiers on the central court.

Decades it had been since he had fought his last battle, as he had been dedicating the past years to the creation of the perfect engines of war, many slave orc incinerated in experimental accidents.  But recently he came to realise his once glorious name has been fading into obscurity, only remembered by the older masters on the Council.  And even some of them have been turned to stone in that time, their places taken by young usurpers who think of him as a raving old man with drunken tales of past glory.

He knew this has to change, that his name would once more be linked to violent victories and succesful enslavement raids.  That those young ones needed to be shown that like wine, battle prowess gets better with the ages.  And when he heard the rumours of The Taurus Crown, a potent magical relic long thought lost had been found again, he decided to withold this information and set up an expedition to reclaim it on his own.

So there they where, his fierce and loyal servants, in awe that he had taken up his smithing hammer of war again instead of his engineering goggles.  But the one thing that he had concerns about where the Asklander levies standing amongst them, led by a beautiful blondhaired shieldmaiden, and their weird ritual of slaying one of their number in a bloody ritual before battle by splitting open their backs.  Could they be relied on, or would they prove to be a flaw in his well-planned armour...

So there we have it, a little story of exactly 300 words to link my first return to the battlefield (hopefully) after a years long hiatus, and linking it to the planned little event where this will actually take place...

 

But how did I end up in the competition?  Well, a ranking isn't made for all entries, just the winners of which I wasn`t part, as can be expected.  But it was fun doing, and I`ll be getting more involved in the CDO contests as a result.

 

PS: at time of posting, I am sadly forced to mention the event was cancelled due to circumstances.  But when it will take place at a later date, I already have the fluff sorted out...